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Definition: The Nazca Plain in Peru has been made famous by Erich von Däniken because he has promoted the idea that these markings - huge lines in the ground, often creating ' images of animals and insects - were made to be landing strips and landing markings for UFOs. According to von Däniken and his supporters, there was no reason or ability of the people at the time to make such images - therefore, UFOs are the only reasonable explanation.
In fact, there was both ability and reason. That people are able to do so has been demonstrated in recent times - all one has to do is to try. The likely reason was discovered by Professor Paul Kosok of Long Island University when he flew over the Nazca plain back in 1939 in order to photograph the lines. He found that one of the longer lines pointed directly at the setting sun on the day of the winter solstice. After further investigation, he realized that other large lines pointed at the setting sun on other solsitices and equinoxes as well. In essence, then, these lines appear to be a huge calendar.
But this does not explain the images of animals, does it? In fact, it does - when a map of the ancient star positions is matched up against the figures on the ground, many of them correspond to various groups of stars at particular times of the year. Not only is this serving as a calendar, but it may also have represented an attempt by the people to contact the gods by creating their own, corresponding figures on the ground just as the gods appeared to be doing in the sky. Once again, there is no need for wild ideas about ancient UFOs to be brought in.
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